A recap of...
The Outlast Trials
In 1959 at the height of the Cold War, the Murkoff Corporation begin a deceptive recruitment program that targets individuals who have fallen on hard times. Those who volunteer are then kidnapped and transported to the Sinyala Facility in Arizona, where they are forced to undergo an involuntary surgical procedure to have night vision goggles screwed onto their heads. Referred to as Reagents, the subjects are then forced to undergo an Initiation Trial, during which they are directed by the facility's director, Dr. Hendrick Joliet Easterman, to destroy their own public and private records while avoiding the psychotic failed test subjects, known as the Experimental Population (referred to as "Ex-Pops").
After completing the initial trial, Easterman allows Reagents access to the Sleep Room, where they can listen to his radio broadcasts and reflect between Trials. The Reagents also meet and converse with engineer Cornelius Noakes, nurse Emily Barlow, and various Sleep Room denizens. They are later assisted by a fellow Reagent named Dorris, colloquially referred to as "The Shadowy Dame". She no longer partakes in the trials, instead providing contraband goods and "Amps" to other subjects. The Trials the Reagents undergo become increasingly dangerous as they are forced to go against the programs' experimental population. These Ex-Pops are led by "Prime Assets"; charismatic murderers that hold dominion over the Trials' themed environments. Notable Prime Assets encountered by Reagents include the disgraced children's show host Phyllis "Mother Gooseberry" Futterman, the sadistic ex-police sergeant Leland Coyle, and the depraved drug-dealing gangster Franco "Il Bambino" Barbi.
After acquiring enough Release Tokens through the completion of Trials, Reagents who are deemed ready by Murkoff can participate in the Reagent Release Protocol, where they must complete a final Trial before being released into the world. During the Trial, Reagents are assigned documentation with new identities before being given a code word through tuning multiple frequencies. After escaping the Trial through a final door, Reagents fall into a dark infinite space where they walk on water as they need to approach a glaring light in the distance.
Endings vary. In one, Reagents will wake up tainted in blood in a hotel room in Cuba. Eventually the room's phone will ring and when the Reagents pick up, they hear Easterman say the code word heard in the Final Trial, causing them to black out. In the second, Reagents wake up with their hands taped to the wheel of a speeding car as it crashes in front of a hotel in South Vietnam, they struggle when they notice an explosive strapped to their chest, but in vain, as it detonates. In the third, Reagents will wake up in the basement lab of Mount Massive Asylum in Colorado, as they are hooked up to the Morphogenic Engine by Dr. Rudolph Wernicke, who had occasionally observed them from the Sleep Room's observation room. While the other scientists question the Reagents' suitability as candidates, Wernicke believes they may actually be of use. The Reagents soon begin to feel the Walrider overtaking them before hearing the final Trial's code word. In a fourth ending added with the Project Lupara update, the Reagents will awaken in a house in China, with a man overdosing in bed next to them. Something knocks on the door. When the Reagents answer the door, they hear Easterman say the code word and the Skinner Man kidnaps them.
After completing the initial trial, Easterman allows Reagents access to the Sleep Room, where they can listen to his radio broadcasts and reflect between Trials. The Reagents also meet and converse with engineer Cornelius Noakes, nurse Emily Barlow, and various Sleep Room denizens. They are later assisted by a fellow Reagent named Dorris, colloquially referred to as "The Shadowy Dame". She no longer partakes in the trials, instead providing contraband goods and "Amps" to other subjects. The Trials the Reagents undergo become increasingly dangerous as they are forced to go against the programs' experimental population. These Ex-Pops are led by "Prime Assets"; charismatic murderers that hold dominion over the Trials' themed environments. Notable Prime Assets encountered by Reagents include the disgraced children's show host Phyllis "Mother Gooseberry" Futterman, the sadistic ex-police sergeant Leland Coyle, and the depraved drug-dealing gangster Franco "Il Bambino" Barbi.
After acquiring enough Release Tokens through the completion of Trials, Reagents who are deemed ready by Murkoff can participate in the Reagent Release Protocol, where they must complete a final Trial before being released into the world. During the Trial, Reagents are assigned documentation with new identities before being given a code word through tuning multiple frequencies. After escaping the Trial through a final door, Reagents fall into a dark infinite space where they walk on water as they need to approach a glaring light in the distance.
Endings vary. In one, Reagents will wake up tainted in blood in a hotel room in Cuba. Eventually the room's phone will ring and when the Reagents pick up, they hear Easterman say the code word heard in the Final Trial, causing them to black out. In the second, Reagents wake up with their hands taped to the wheel of a speeding car as it crashes in front of a hotel in South Vietnam, they struggle when they notice an explosive strapped to their chest, but in vain, as it detonates. In the third, Reagents will wake up in the basement lab of Mount Massive Asylum in Colorado, as they are hooked up to the Morphogenic Engine by Dr. Rudolph Wernicke, who had occasionally observed them from the Sleep Room's observation room. While the other scientists question the Reagents' suitability as candidates, Wernicke believes they may actually be of use. The Reagents soon begin to feel the Walrider overtaking them before hearing the final Trial's code word. In a fourth ending added with the Project Lupara update, the Reagents will awaken in a house in China, with a man overdosing in bed next to them. Something knocks on the door. When the Reagents answer the door, they hear Easterman say the code word and the Skinner Man kidnaps them.
